Parental Notification Law Heads to the Supreme Court

The New Hampshire legislature passed the Parental Notification Prior to Abortion Act in 2003, requiring doctors to provide notice to a minor's parents at least 48 hours before performing an abortion on the minor. The statue exempts the physician from notifying a minor's parents if he certifies he must perform an abortion immediately to prevent the minor's death.

The Alliance Defense Fund and the Christian Legal Society filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the U.S. Supreme Court urging it to protect young women by upholding the constitutionality of the New Hampshire Parental Notification Prior to Abortion Act. The brief encourages the court to reverse a decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit that found the act unconstitutional.

"Parental involvement in a teenager's situation is not only desirable but beneficial to the overall mental and physical health of the teenage mother," said CLS Chief Litigation Counsel Steven H. Aden.

ADF and CLS filed the brief in the case, Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, along with the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the Christian Medical Association, the Catholic Medical Association, the National Association of Evangelicals, and Concerned Women for America.

In the brief, the organizations support the constitutionality of the parental notification statute: "New Hampshire's plan for parental certification is a safe and effective means of assuring that the mother receives treatment in a timely manner without risking exposure to dangerous procedures and unscrupulous providers. Should the parents be notified and fail to act in the best interest of their teenage child, the physician has ample recourse either through emergency bypass or through termination of parental rights in a child welfare proceeding."

The brief also offers medical evidence that contradicts the claim that than an immediate abortion would be the accepted standard practice when acute medical complications occur during a teenager's pregnancy. The brief demonstrates that abortion can pose a greater risk to a young mother's health than continuing the pregnancy. The full text can be read at www.telladf.org/UserDocs/AyotteAmicus.pdf.